A/N: Things are starting to pick up in this chapter, so I hope y'all like it!

Ellie woke with a start, hearing Abby walking around their room as she got ready for patrol.

"Hey, you're up early." She says, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

"Yeah, we got reports of infected just west of here. Darren wants me to bring a group out." Abby says, putting her shoes on as Ellie sat up in bed. She hated not going on patrols anymore and it made her feel useless just waiting for Abby, wondering if she was alive or dead.

"Alright, just hurry back I guess." She shrugs, looking down at her lap.

"Hey, I'm going to be okay. I'll be back by dinner."

"Yeah okay." She shrugs, barely looking up at her.

"I promise I'm going to be in once piece." Abby says, sitting down beside her and putting an arm around Ellie.

"How do you know that?"

"Well, I have you and Lev and now the baby back here waiting for me and I'll try extra hard to make it back to you."

Ellie smiled as Abby kissed her on the forehead before getting up and grabbing her backpack. She was still worried, but she knew Abby always made do on her promises to return.

"Alright, be safe."

Abby approached Ellie again, taking her firefly pendant off and taking Ellie's hand as she placed the pendant in it.

"This way you have a piece of me, and you know that I'll come back for it."

Ellie didn't say anything as Abby left the room.

Ellie still couldn't help but worry about Abby, she just sat on the bed in their room looking at the pendant in her hand. She ran her finger over the engravings of Abby's name, finding that the roughness calmed her slightly. She just felt like a burden staying behind while everyone was out on patrols and she was back here.

"Hey, Ellie? Want to come with me and Rebecca? We're going to play a game with Amaria on the roof." Lev says from the entryway of the room, looking at Ellie with hopeful eyes.

"Nah I'm fine. Maybe another day." She says, barely looking up at the teen.

"Why aren't you out with Abby? You're usually on patrols together." He says, looking at her questioningly.

"Oh, Gabriel wants me to hang back because I'm still having back issues." She lied, standing up and clutching the pendant in her hand. Lev still didn't know that she was pregnant, and she didn't want to tell him for another few weeks. Still anxious about the risks associated with her pregnancy.

"Oh well are you sure that you don't want to come play a game?"

"Yeah, I'm sure. I just want to wait for Abby to get back." She says, grabbing her switchblade and maneuvering around him as she left the room. Lev just shrugged, not thinking much of her unusual behavior as he went to find the girls to play their game.

Ellie walked through the halls that were otherwise silent other than an occasional guard passing by. She had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach, holding Abby's pendant and looking it over. She didn't know what the bad feeling she got was, but all she knew was that she didn't like it. The woman wasn't paying attention as she looked at the pendant until someone grabbed her and pulled her into the stairwell. Ellie's head bounced back against the wall from the force, making her vision go fuzzy as she looked up to see Michael's angry face.

"What the fuck, dude?" She asks, lifting her hand up and feeling the bump on the back of her head and pulling it away to reveal blood.

"You're her. You're the kid that was brought to us years ago." He says, taking his hands off her.

"I don't know what you're talking about." She says, crossing her arms. She would never show it, but she feared what Michael was going to do to her. In the year and a half since she and Abby arrived, she had never seen this man so angry.

"You're her. You're the girl that the smuggler brought to us years ago!"

Ellie didn't say anything as she maneuvered herself around him, starting to walk away. Her hand was on the door handle to leave the stairwell when Michael's next words stopped her in her tracks.

"I hope that smuggler gets what he deserves. You should have died that day."

Ellie whipped her head around, seeing red as she briskly walked back over to him. She knew that she was supposed to die in the hospital that day, but no one was going to disrespect Joel that way.

"What the fuck did you just say?" She asks, closing the distance between them again.

"You heard me. That smuggler that brought you in deserves to die for fucking us over."

Ellie was even more pissed now that he said that again and she was officially done with Michael's shit. Not many people could piss Ellie off but talking shit about Joel or anyone Ellie cared about was at the top of that list.

"You fucking_" She starts, only to be cut off when Michael grabbed her and slammed her against the wall again. Michael wrapped his hands around her throat, squeezing as hard as he could as she struggled. Ellie gasped for air, trying to grab Michael's wrists to pry them from her throat as dark spots started to form in her vision; her face turned red from the lack of oxygen.

Michael was much stronger than Ellie and Ellie's struggle just made him tighten his grip on her throat. Ellie gasped, feeling herself starting to lose consciousness before she reached into her pocket and grabbed her switchblade, flipping it open and stabbing Michael's thigh. She remembered when Abby had tried to choke her in the theater and stabbing her was the only way to get her to release her grip. Michael screamed in pain, reflexively letting go of Ellie, who bolted.

Ellie scrambled for the door, throwing it open and starting to run down the hall, trying to find someone that could help. Michael had regained his composure and gave chase; since he was bigger than her, he was much faster and caught up to her in no time, tackling her to the ground. The older man grabbed a fistful of Ellie's hair, banging her face against the tile floor repeatedly. Ellie grabbed her switchblade again, only for Michael to smack it out of her hand.

Ellie started to panic as Michael turned her over onto her back, starting to punch her in the face before she grabbed his hand and bit him hard. Michael screamed as Ellie kicked him off her and started crawling towards her blade, unable to find the strength to walk. She wasn't prepared for Michael to regain his composure again so quickly and the older man came over and kicked her in the stomach. Hard. The cramping Ellie felt was instantaneous as Michael straddled her again, grabbing her blade and pressing it against her throat.

"Please stop!" She pleads, coughing up blood.

"Why should I? The sooner you're dead the sooner we can have a cure." He says, pressing the blade harder against her throat, drawing blood.

"Please stop!" She says again, more forcefully as she spit up more blood, "I'm pregnant."

Michael's eyes widened in realization as he got off Ellie, tossing her blade to the side. Ellie coughed as she rolled over and started crawling again, trying to reach the knife this time, only for Michael to kick her again.

"You should die for this cure. We're going to get a cure somehow." He says, glaring down at her as he nudged her stomach before turning and leaving the hallway.

Ellie groaned as she felt a wetness between her legs and trailed her hand down, pulling it away to reveal blood.

No no no. I can't lose this baby. She thought, trying to crawl again.

Ellie tried to get up, collapsing to the floor as everything went black.

A/N: Let me know what y'all think!